VR

Have Your Own Personal Boundary in Horizon Worlds & Venues

February 4, 2022 From vrfocus

Meta’s vision of its metaverse is a safe happy place where you can socialise with friends or make new ones. However, that’s not always the case and there will always be a small contingent who’ll try and ruin it for others. To that end, Meta has just announced Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues, a feature that’ll prevent avatars from coming in close proximity to one another.

Meta Personal Boundary example — An example, not how it’ll look as the boundaries are invisible. Image credit: Meta

Essentially, Personal Boundary is an invisible shield that stops anyone from getting too close. You won’t notice it and there’s no haptic feedback to indicate the fact, it’s just there as your unseen security guard.

Whilst it is a shame such features are required, having them there is better than not. Plus the Personal Boundary does have one customisable setting. By default, it is always on but you can turn it off if you so wish, if you’re in a private setting with real-world friends and family for example. The boundary extends two feet from your avatar so there can be a total of four feet between you and someone else.

There’s no way to adjust the boundary yourself if you want to make it bigger or smaller. Those kinds of customisation options may arrive at a later date as Meta fine-tunes the feature.

Meta Personal Boundary — Image credit: Meta

Meta adds in a blog post that: “Note that because Personal Boundary is the default experience, you’ll need to extend your arms to be able to high-five or fist bump other people’s avatars.” So there might be a few odd moments where two people lean in for a fist bump.

Personal Boundary is rolling out today for Horizon Worlds and Venues. Actually accessing Horizon Worlds is another matter. Currently, under development as Meta’s core metaverse experience, the app was in beta for ages until it opened up to adults in the US and Canada in December 2021. There’s still no indication as to when other territories will gain access.

For continued updates on the Horizon family of apps, keep reading gmw3.

Meta’s Wireless High-End Headset Project Cambria Still on for 2022

February 3, 2022 From vrfocus

While Meta’s quarterly earnings calls are a number fest, occasionally CEO Mark Zuckerberg gives some interesting insight or update as to its hardware plans. That was certainly the case this week when in amongst all the Oculus Store figures he mentioned that Meta’s high-end virtual reality (VR) headset (Project Cambria) is still on track for a 2022 launch.

New Oculus Facebook headset leak — Leaked image prior to Project Cambria announcement.

Project Cambria was officially announced during the Connect 2021 keynote – although a leak had surfaced – widely expected because had continually talked about an Oculus Quest Pro model. This was going to be more powerful, have more sensors packed into it to track your eyes and facial features. It’s assumed these are the same device, with Meta looking to corner the prosumer and enterprise market as well.

The Connect 2021 address mentioned a 2022 launch window and Zuckerberg has reiterated that fact, saying: “We’re working towards a release of a high-end virtual reality headset later this year.” It’s likely the official launch will take place during Connect which should make for quite an exciting finale to 2022 for VR fans as PlayStation VR2 has been rumoured to arrive by year-end.

Whilst there are still plenty of unknown’s regarding Project Cambria, Meta has dropped several details highlighting its desire to create a much more refined VR experience for those who don’t mind paying for it.

It’ll still be a wireless, standalone headset for ultimate freedom in VR that’ll be compatible with Quest – but it won’t be the next Quest – so it’ll likely still include AirLink or some other PC connectivity. Plus as a high-end product, it’ll cost more, probably north of £500 to differentiate it from the Quest 2’s £299/£399 consumer price point.

Project Cambria optics — Project Cambria’s Pancake Optics. Image credit: Meta

As for the in-built tech, those eye and face tracking features will play a major part, thus allowing your metaverse avatar to express your actual emotions. Meta’s VR avatars actually got an upgrade earlier this week to aid with this process. Eye-tracking also allows for foveated rendering, focusing processing power on where you’re looking whilst your peripheral vision can be rendered at a lower quality.

Project Cambria won’t purely offer VR experiences either, it’s going to be a mixed reality (MR) headset with full-colour passthrough thanks to an array of cameras. This will be different to MR devices like Magic Leap because you won’t have a transparent display to look through. Instead, the real world will be displayed in the internal screens with advanced algorithms helping to add a sense of depth.

None of this will be any good if the optics aren’t amazing. So to make the visuals pop whilst ensuring a slim, light headset Meta will be employing pancake optics. These fold light several times over to maintain a thinner form factor, the lens being one of the main reasons for the bulk of a VR headset.

This pro headset might be readying for launch in 2022 but don’t forget Meta isn’t dropping the Quest product lineup. The CEO said last year that its Reality Labs division was working on follow-up devices: “We have product teams spun up now, working on the next few generations of virtual reality and what Quest 3 and 4 are gonna look like.” So consumer Quest’s aren’t going anywhere.

For further updates on Project Cambria, keep reading gmw3.

Panasonic Subsidiary Shiftall Unveils Lightweight MicroOLED VR Headset for Consumers

January 4, 2022 From roadtovr

Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall, the makers of SteamVR-compatible body tracking system HaritoraX, announced it’s releasing a lightweight consumer VR headset this year that includes OLED microdisplays and the ability to play SteamVR content. Called MeganeX, the low-profile, high-resolution headset is slated to launch sometime in Spring 2022, priced at around $900.

Unveiled at CES 2022, Shiftall’s MeganeX is said to include 1.3 inch OLED microdisplays which feature a 2,560 × 2,560 per-eye resolution, rated at 120Hz. The 6DOF headset features a foldable frame with built-in speakers, making for a compact package that weighs in at 250g, or around 8.8oz (without cable).

Pancake optics are included here too—a design element which Huawei and Pico have used in their respective prototype headsets, and which HTC has used to slim down its Vive Flow standalone headset.

Shiftall says MeganeX is focused on serving up SteamVR content, however it’s also said to include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR1 chipset—similar to Vive Flow. Here’s the full spec sheet Shiftall has shared so far:

Display: 1.3inch OLED microdisplay 5.2K (2,560 × 2,560 per eye), 10bit HDR / 120Hz
Weight: Approx. 250g (8.8oz) – Without cable
Processor: Snapdragon XR1 platform
Tracking system: 6DOF, camera based inside-out head tracking
Connection: DisplayPort Alternate Mode on USB-C or DisplayPort + USB2.0 – Connect with the interface conversion box (included in package)
Estimated Price: Less than $900

Tech analyst and YouTuber Brad Lynch (aka ‘SadlyItsBradley’) says in a hands-on at CES 2022 that both clarity and brightness are “actually pretty good,” and further correctly guessed at the inclusion of Kopin microdisplays. Shiftall says those are also Kopin-made pancake optics, in case you were wondering.

Lynch’s admittedly quick assessment on the show floor is encouraging to hear, as pancake optics typically present drawbacks when it comes to optical efficiency, requiring brighter displays to overcome disturbances caused by its polarized elements, which reflect light back and forth.

Both specs-wise and in physical appearance, Shiftall’s MeganeX feels very similar to Panasonic’s compact VR glasses revealed at a special event last year in Japan which coincided with the all-digital CES 2021. Those included Kopin microOLEDs providing a 2,560 × 2,560 per-eye resolution too.

One of the biggest missing pieces is field of view (FOV) however. Kopin says in a prior announcement for its first all-plastic ‘P95’ pancake optics, that when paired with its own Kopin’s 1.3 inch 2,560 × 2,560 microOLED it can provide around a 95-degree FOV.

Acquired by Panasonic in 2018, Shiftall focuses primarily on niche consumer devices, many of which feel like contenders for SkyMall. Its IMU-based body tracking system, HaritoraX, has been on the Japanese market for some time now though, which better positioned the company to dive deeper into the world of XR hardware development. Besides MeganeX, Shiftall is bringing two more immersion gadgets to global markets with the help of parent company Panasonic this year.

Alongside MeganeX, Shiftall also announced Pebble Feel, a wearable body cooling and heating device worn on your back, and Mutalk, a microphone that’s supposed to suppress outside noise as well as muffle the user’s own speech to those nearby in their physical space—both ideal candidates for VRChat, NeosVR or any other fairly open social VR app that supports niche hardware such as haptic vests. Both Pebble Feel and Mutalk are slated to launch in 2022, both priced at “around $200”.